One Year Ago, Max Added Sports from TNT, TBS, and truTV - When Will It Start Charging?
One year ago, Max added a huge benefit for subscribers with the Bleacher Report (B/R) Sports Add-On. For no additional cost, subscribers could now watch NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA basketball and more. But the launch came with an ominous asterisk: those sports were free “for a limited time.” Will Max ever start charging?
If Max were going to pull the trigger, now would be the time. One year is more than generous for a “temporary” free perk, and we’re at the perfect time to raise the price. Max will offer the 2024 ALDS & ALCS, the NHL starts play today, and the NBA is starting later this month.
Another factor to consider: Fubo successfully halted the launch of Venu Sports, a planned streamer that would offer all the same Warner Bros. Discovery sports broadcasts Max offers. If WBD were expecting Venu revenue in Q4, it could recoup some of that by charging for the Bleacher Report package.
In fact, if Max were ever going to start charging for its sports, the window is closing. This will be the last season WBD has rights to the NBA. Starting next year, a major NBA package shifts to NBC/Peacock. That means the end of the beloved. NBA on TNT broadcasts. When those games are gone, the Max sports package looks significantly diminished. It would be odd to start charging a premium for a weaker sports lineup.
There’s also the possibility Max will never charge for the sports add-on. We’re all used to increasing prices on our services, but Max was a rare case of preemptively hinting at a price hike. Prime Video wasn’t launched with the promise of “ad-free for a limited time.” Amazon may have always been planning to jam ads in its shows and movies, but they didn’t telegraph it.
The fact that Max has spent a year repeating “limited time” suggests the plan has always been to raise the price, but company leaders have decided to kick the can down the road. CEO David Zaslav has made a string of questionable decisions, from removing library content to demanding a reboot of Harry Potter to killing Boomerang and joining forces with Disney to offer an unusual multi-streamer bundle. Zaslav wants all the eyeballs he can get as he tries to make Max a must-have streamer.
Bloomberg suggested Max may start charging for its sports tier at the end of September, but we’re almost a week into October with no movement.
Streaming companies are always walking a knife’s edge when considering price hikes. Netflix often loses subscribers with price hikes, but managed to avoid defections when it added its ad-supported tier by pricing it below the standard subscription. Peers like Disney+ and Prime Video suffered backlash when it pushed everyone to an ad-supported tier unless they paid far more for a premium subscription. If Max initially offered Bleacher Report at a premium price and later included it for free, subscribers would have cheered the move.
Max’s value proposition has been shaky in recent months. “Succession” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” ended. “Euphoria” was greenlit for Season 3, but its last episode was nearly three years ago. Fans of “The Last of Us” will have endured a two-year wait before Season 2 arrives sometime next year. “House of the Dragon” may have permanently alienated fans with a poorly received Season 2 finale. Other than “The Penguin,” HBO and Max have very little to offer subscribers. Are they really counting on us staying subscribed for four scripted series per year?
If Max doesn’t pull the trigger on a price hike before the NBA season, we expect the Bleacher Report add-on will never require an additional price. After the NBA leaves forever, the sports lineup can’t justify an additional price, and subscribers will rebel if Max starts charging for something that was previously included for free.
Max
Max is a subscription video streaming service that gives access to the full HBO library, along with exclusive Max Originals. There are hubs for content from TLC, HGTV, Food Network, Discovery, TCM, Cartoon Network, Travel Channel, ID, and more. Watch hit series like “The Last of Us,” “House of the Dragon,” “Succession,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and more. Thanks to the B/R Sports add-on, users can watch NBA, MLB, NHL, March Madness, and NASCAR events.